Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

There are moments when I am sitting in my Seminary classes or bow my head to pray, and something inside me whispers: You don’t belong here. I can be holding my Bible, standing on holy ground, and still feel like I’m standing in someone else’s shoes.

For me, this is what imposter syndrome looks like in ministry. It’s not that I don’t believe God called me, it’s that sometimes I doubt the way God called me.

I don’t preach like the preachers I grew up hearing. I don’t pray like the elders who could call down heaven with a single phrase. My rhythm is different. My voice is softer in some places, sharper in others. My prayers don’t always follow the familiar cadence, and sometimes I stumble over words. And when I catch myself noticing that difference, I wonder if it means I’m not enough.

But here’s what I’m learning: my difference is not a flaw, it’s a fingerprint. It’s God’s way of reminding me that I was never meant to duplicate someone else’s calling.

The beauty of the gospel is that it has always been carried by people who didn’t fit the mold. Moses stammered. Jeremiah doubted. Mary was a young girl with no credentials at all. None of them matched the expectations of their day, but God moved through their difference.

So when imposter syndrome shows up, I’m trying to meet it with truth. I remind myself:

• I don’t have to sound like anyone else to be anointed.
• I don’t have to pray like anyone else for God to hear me.
• I don’t have to lead like anyone else for my leadership to matter.

The Spirit works through me as me.

Some days I still wrestle with that. Some days the imposter voice is louder than my confidence. But then someone will tell me that what I wrote gave them peace, or the way I said something helped them see God in a new way. And I realize: if I had tried to be anyone else, they might have missed what God was doing through me.

So I’m choosing to believe that my difference is holy. My voice matters. My presence matters. And maybe, just maybe, the very things that make me feel like an outsider are what make me most equipped to do this work.

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A Prayer for When Imposter Syndrome Creeps In

God of difference and design,
remind me that You made me on purpose.
Silence the voices that tell me I don’t belong.
When I stumble, let me remember Your strength.
When I feel too small, remind me that You move through small things.
Teach me to honor the sound of my own voice,
the rhythm of my own prayers,
the shape of my own ministry.
May I stand in the pulpit, the classroom, the hospital room,
or wherever You’ve placed me,
not as an imitation, but as the truest reflection of You in me.
Amen.